Artificial Intelligence and Data Science for Leaders

Dr. Nalini Polavarapu is the Vice President of Enterprise Analytics and Data Science and Data Science Center of Excellence Lead at Bayer. In this role, she oversees strategies and solutions using machine learning, operations research, and data and analytics to enable the development of predictive pipelines and end-to-end supply chains to deliver best-in-class customer experience. She is also responsible for developing learning programs to provide the organization with enhanced training in digital skills and shape the culture of Bayer’s 700-strong data science community. Since joining the company fourteen years ago, Polavarapu has held various leadership roles in IT, R&D, and Commercial—helping grow the value from data science in the company through product innovations, influencing leaders, and hiring and developing the best talent—all toward the goal of becoming the leader in the digital space. She leads Women in Data Science @ Bayer and is part of Bayer’s women’s business resource group leadership team. She was included in CDO Magazine’s 2020 and 2021 Global Data Power Women lists for her contributions to the digital transformation of agriculture, received the Global Leadership Award from HMG Strategy in 2021, and was featured as an alumna by the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2018. Polavarapu has obtained multiple patents and has authored and co-authored research articles in leading scientific journals. Additionally, she has co-authored book chapters on high throughput data analysis and applications. She has done multiple podcasts and is a frequent speaker and panel member at CIO/CDO/CAO, Venture Café, US Chamber of Commerce, and leading digital AI/ML conferences. She and her inventions have been featured by, among others, US Chamber of Commerce publications, the Ag Magazine, ScienceDaily, and MSNBC. Polavarapu earned a PhD and dual master’s degrees in Computer Science and Bioinformatics from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Beyond her role at Bayer, she serves on the City of Chicago’s Chief Data Officers’ (CDO) governing body, acts as senior advisor to the University of Chicago Master of Science in Analytics program, and is an advisory board member of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Institute for Data Science. She also co-designed this University of Chicago Artificial Intelligence and Data Science for Leaders program, which is offered in multiple languages.